Big Changes Coming to Cozad High School for 2016-2017

Big changes mean new opportunities are on the horizon for Cozad students in the 2016-2017 school year.  After nearly a year of planning, our current homeroom will be undergoing a major makeover to focus on three initiatives.  These three focuses are:

1.  Offering a more purposeful approach to helping our freshman grow the skills they need to be successful.  This will include character education, career education, study skills, digital citizenship, and academic planning.
2. Providing a framework for academic interventions for students who are struggling academically.  This will include opportunities for remediating missed content skills and for the recovery of credit for those who have fallen behind in their progress to graduate.
3. Increasing enrichment course offerings and real world learning opportunities.  These will range from increased college preparatory opportunities to exploratory classes that cover a wide variety of academic content areas.

In order to allow for these areas to be addressed through the this new "8th Period", the current homeroom, which is twenty four minutes long, will be expanded to forty eight minutes.  To accomplish this, our regular classes will be shortened from fifty one minutes to forty eight minutes each.  After discussions with teachers and administrators, all felt comfortable with the forty eight minute length of classes to still allow for an appropriate amount of instruction time.  

To ensure that the programming focuses are relevant to Cozad and our students needs, teachers have taken the lead in developing the direction and logistics of each of the focus.  Each of these focus areas has approximately six teachers who have chosen to help with that specific initiative.  This will allow teachers to have ownership of the programs they develop and students to benefit from the decisions of those who know them best.

  

Stay tuned this spring for more information.

An Educational Take on 40 Chances for Finding Hope in a Hungry World...Part 2

As a proud alum of Cozad High School, I now work as guidance counselor in a system that affords me more professional freedom and autonomy than I could have ever imagined. This freedom is a blessing and a curse.  When things go well, it is satisfying, but due to my nature of being a perfectionist, it is too obvious to me the areas we need to focus more time and energy into keeping our small town vibrant.

Driving through our downtown, there are some stark contrasts that stand out to even the casual observer.  There are many vacant store fronts that stand as a relic of the lost opportunity of succession planning.  Then just a few blocks away there is new construction taking place where businesses are growing and thriving.

So what can we do to address the reality that our rural community is failing to retain our best and brightest after graduation or college and return home?

One idea, is to commit ourselves to doing a better job of connecting our students with our stakeholders and business people.  At some point, all of our students will be looking for a professional opportunity.  For some of those students, it may come to the point where they have the desire to work at level higher than 'just an employee'.  That is where our opportunity presents itself.  By connecting students with our stakeholders in the area/areas they have an interest, we can build long term relationships that someday may provide an open door for our students to return to our community.  The collateral benefit: these business have a pool of interested individuals to one day come back and sustain the existence of our business community.

A start to the large task of connecting our youth with our business community is our upcoming senior seminar on Friday November 20th.  This day has two focuses: 1. Help seniors identify their options after high school. 2. Connect our seniors with our local professionals to build their network and begin opening the door for them to one day return to our community.

During our event, we have a networking luncheon planned where students will have lunch in small groups with local business professionals.  These groups were formed through a survey where kids identified the career areas they are most interested in.  While there are many great sessions planned, this session, in my mind has the potential to be the best session of all.  It is our hope that this session is the catalyst for building some great relationships that years from now will bring some of our students back home.  This session would not be possible without the partnership of several key members of our community.  Larry Paulsen of Paulsen Inc. and Robyn Geiser from Cozad Development Corporation have been phenomenal partners.  Both of these individuals are invaluable to our school system and community.

These partnerships with local stakeholders are the essence of what is allowing us to move forward in improving the educational experience for our kids.  Bringing local control back to our schools will be a focus of our efforts and programs over the forseeable future.  Our experiences over the last few years have proven to us how valuable these partnerships can be.  I would encourage and challenge schools to focus more on developing these local partnerships since we collectively benefit from improving our students experiences.

Stay tuned for the third part of this series that will discuss the economic opportunities for our students that exist in small rural communities and how we can capitilize on these to bring more of graduates back home.

An Educational Take on 40 Chance for Finding Hope in a Hungry World...Part 1

Last year about this time, I read a great book by Howard Buffett, son of the famous Warren Buffett.  The book was entitled 40 Chances for Finding Hope in a Hungry World.  The gist of the book was in our working lives, we have about 40 chances (40 years) to make a lasting impact.  I highly recommend the book and will go as far as saying that if you read it with an open heart, it will change the way you approach your everyday work.

This fall, I have had the opportunity to travel with several groups of students to events such as the Rural Futures Conference, a career day in agriculture sponsored by First Bank & Trust, and the UNMC career opportunities day.  After each one of these days and the follow up conversations with students, it has reinforced how small our window of opportunity is make a lasting and meaningful impact in the lives of our students.  The obvious conclusion, is that with the high school students we have today, we don't have forty chances, we only have four.  Those four chances pass with the blink of an eye and as educators and leaders we should experience a sense of extreme urgency to 'get it right' with our students.

The reality of life in small town rural America, is that sometimes, we are our worst enemies when it comes to the long term viability of our communities.  We do a great job of teaching our students.  We do a great job of instilling the ethic of work.  We do a great job of laying the foundation for future success in a global society.  Where we fall short, is building lasting relationships between our students and our community stakeholders.  We fail to build opportunites for our students to return to our communities to carry the torch of rural America and the economic viability of our communities.

Recently, our school has made the decision to revitalize an agriculture education program.  For those of you who have a sterotypical view of agriculture jobs flashing through your minds, keep in mind that depending upon the source or region of Nebraska, anywhere from one out of four (25%) to three out of four (75%) jobs in our state are directly related to agriculture.  These jobs go far beyond production into the finance, logistics, and manufacturing industries as well.  Through our agriculture education program, we hope to provide greater educational opportunities for our students where they can find meaningful and productive work after formal education ends.  We also hope to help our all of our students (high ability and vocationally bound) the opportunity to gain knowledge and skills that are relevant to all of us.

During this process, we have gathered together a committee of local stakeholders to help us formulate the vision for our program, build partnerships, and recruit the highest quality instructor possible.  This week, we held our first stakeholder meeting to gather their invaluable input on the direction our program should take, as well as, ideas to bring greater value to our agriculture education program.  This is one of the greatest benefits of living in small town rural America.  The opportunity to personally know and work with these core members of our community to provide a better educational system.  The opportunity to work with our community members can't have a price tag placed on it.

I am born and raised in Cozad and ten years ago, made the choice to come back home.  Perhaps that was by happenstace, perhaps there was some primary experience which called me back home.  Either way, what matters most is that I returned.  Every day, I try not to take for granted all the hidden opportunities that exist in the challenges of living in small town America.  It is not often that people have the chance to impact an entire community and region in their work, but that is an everyday reality of living in a rural community.   My experiences have been so positive that I hope that all of our students one day have the chance to come back home too!

With our high school students, one year represents 25% of the 'chances' we have to prepare them for the real world.  It represents 25% of the chances we have to help them discover their passion.  It represents 25% of our chances to help them discover opportunities and connect with our community so that they can help sustain the work done by those living in our community today.  Four chances go by quickly.  I challenge all who read this to comment with a memory of someone who helped you identify your passion and inspired you to 'find hope in a hungry world'.  I also challenge all eductors reading this to never take a day for granted.  Our chances are limited, so make the most of every one of them.

100th Meridian EdCamp = Professional Development + Building Relationships

I am writing this blog just a few short hours after the 100th Meridian EdCamp hosted by the #CozadMakers schools.  Thanks to the efforts of Patty Wolfe (@wolfep) and Dave Evertson (@dave_evertson), the event was an overwhelming success.  The hours of planning and behind the scenes work that led to the countless moments of growth for our staff as well as other educators from across the state can't be summed up accurately in a blog post, so just take my word for it, that it was AWESOME.

For those not familiar with what an EdCamp is, the video to the right shows what the 'un-conference' is like.  The session for the day is not determined until everyone has arrived and had a chance to post on the board what the would like to learn about or what they would like to share about.  Then attendees then vote on the topics they want to attend.  The top 16 sessions then become the breakout sessions for the day.  Here is a link to the session schedule that came about in less than an hour this morning

Today, like so many other conferences I have attended in the last couple of years (on both the local and national levels), the theme of relationships with others and building a positive culture came up numerous times.

In several of the sessions, teachers shared their views and thoughts.  It has been said before that when a group of people gather together, the smartest person in the room, is the room itself, and this was completely true today.  The collective genius that came about through authentic sharing could not have been replicated by any 'sit & get' sessions we could have designed.  Thank you to all the #CozadMakers for their contributions as well as all the other educators from places like Lexington, Kearney, Bayard, ESU10, Minatare, Bayard, Broken Bow and several other communities.  The events of today have opened the door to empower teachers to become the agents of change in our school and improve our educational systems.

Awesome goals for Chris Tvrdy

 Attendees also shared their experiences and thoughts in twitter posts using the hashtag of #EdCamp100M today.  These 140 character expressions reach farther than just 75 attendees.  That reach extended to other prominent educators across the country who replied, retweeted, or favorited thoughts posts by attendees.  The power of being a connected educator was on full display today!  You can find a summary of some of the tweets and conversation on twitter by clicking here.

Beth Carver's very thougtful goals

I am both proud and humbled to be a #CozadMakers team member and be surrounded by so many passionate educators who gave one their last days of summer vacation to share their genius.  As one EdCamp attendee tweeted '#EdCamp100M was a refreshing way to prepare for a new school year'.  Several of our staff members also shared their #TYIW goals (This Year I Will).  It is amazing to see their dreams and goals on display and  witness their journey to achieve their goals.  Our community is lucky to have such an amazing staff.

The always deep thinking Dave Evertson's goals

One of the most impactful for experiences for me today was the idea that if we wish to make things better and experience the change we believe schools today need, we must have the courage to do things we have never done.  Ghandi, in short is credited with the quote of 'Be the change you wish to see in the world'.  I hope to challenge myself to 'Be The Change'.  To start a movement it takes courage on the part of the leader and the followers...so here's to a year of couragous actions to make this year a great experience for our students and community.

Keely Rienert's first goal sums it all up

Thank you again to the Dave Evertson and Patty Wolfe for their leadership and the behind the scenes work of Karen Berreckman, Patty Margritz, Marcie Kostrunek, and the rest of tech team who made today such a resounding success.  Thank you to Cozad Development Corporation and the Cozad Community Health Systems for the lunches and service to make our day come off without a hitch.  A Thank you also goes out to the Cozad Community Schools for allowing our staff to utilize today as one of our contracted flex day.  I can't think of a better way to gear up for the coming school year!  But the final thank you goes out to all of the attendees and the experience of sharing our collective genius to make us all better.

When Novelty Fades Resolve Remains

New shiny things are exciting, but take effort to maintain.  The same is true for the excitement we experience from hearing a new message or seeing the latest and greatest gadget.  It is also true for kids.  Any coach will tell you that energy and morale are high on the first few days of practice and over time, those who experience the dissipation of novelty fail to continue with the same zeal.  We have all seen it in the classroom when school starts.  Students are eager to be there, they are organized, have work completed, etc.  Then by the third quarter their work has changed into the 'average' of what they can produce.

So how do we maintain the energy and production that comes with the novelty of new experiences?  One of the ways I did this last year was through the 'This Year I Will #TYIW initiative.  Spurred on by the initiative of Adam Bellow, I along with several of my peers created a #TYIW artifact that was posted outside my door and their doors.  It listed my goals for the year and was personalized for the world to see. It kept me accountable to accomplish my goals and follow through with what I said I would do.

This year to take it a step further, I am planning on hosting a #TYIW PARTY!!!!  A party? Yes, a party...where guests are invited to spend the evening conversing, sharing quality time together, enjoying the last few days of summer, but most importantly, sharing their goals.  The exit ticket, for the party will be get up in front of the group and share out what their goals are for the year.  It is my hope that they will also spend some time and creating their 'artifact' to hang outside their room.

To take the first step, here is a look at my goals for the #TYIW.  I hope you will challenge yourself to create you own.  I would love to hear your thoughts on these goals as well.

Feedback and Choice - Essential Elements of Learning

Last week I wrote about my ideas to create a culture of sharing within our district.  Several hundred readers visited and read the post.  Two of my fellow teachers took the time to respond to my post and great conversations ensued.

One teacher agreed with and supported many of the ideas, while the other one dissenting view.  The dissenting view, told me that they sent me an email with some thoughts about my post, but didn't want me to me angry with them.  The fact that they were worried I would take offense to their post, speaks volumes to our districts need to engage in a process of sharing and feedback far more often than we do.

Personally, for me what came out of this was an opportunity to model sharing and receiving feedback on a post that I had written from a center of passion.  Furthermore, it was a reminder that as we begin this process of sharing and peer review, we need to be mindful of our relative 'noob' status to this process.  Due to the fact many of us are still novice's in this process of giving and receiving feedback we must be mindful of the words we choose, but must speak with fidelity to what we mean.

As I was thinking about writing this blog, I was in the middle of completing a forum post for one of the two online graduate classes I am taking this summer.  These two classes have been devoid of any feedback on the assignments I have completed from the instructors.  Other students in the classes have commented on my forum posts, as I have theirs, but the instructors are conspicuously absent.  I only bring this fact up, because the assignments are similar to this: 1. Read chapter X, 2. Respond to forum prompt checking for superficial understanding, 3. Respond to two classmates posts.

While I would like to think that this is providing the best environment for learning, I can't help but want some feedback from the instructor or if no feedback from the instructor, then more freedom to produce my artifact of learning.  Harnessing the power of technology and online coursework requires observation and feedback.  The feedback I would offer my instructors in an online classes: don't tell students what you know, but allow them to show you what they learned.  Allow for the construction of artifacts that demonstrate learning not just demonstrate the right answer or busy work, but most importantly offer them authentic feedback.  I believe that our students want the same.  They want feedback and/or they want choice.  I plan to keep this mind as I work with students, offering them authentic feedback and opportunities.  I hope that all teachers keep this in mind when working with students.  And finally, I hope that our district continues to share and offer feedback to one another as this year progresses.

Building a culture of sharing

One of my professional goals as you know is to begin sharing more.  This morning, I attended a roundtable discussion on the connected educator paneled by 10 of the greatest minds and authors in educational leadership today.  The session was filled with ROCK STARS and they rotated through our smaller groups to share with us and allow us to glean from them their 'pearls of wisdom'.  It was awesome session...almost perfect...I say almost for a reason.

Two of the presenters who rotated through were Pernille Ripp and Peter Dewitt.  While speaking of ways to build a culture of sharing in schools, I posed a question to Pernille via twitter.  I also tagged another blogging hero of mine, Tom Whitby.  The response I got made me do the Homer Simpson style 'Doh'...

Initially, I was looking for a quick answer.  This response, though caused me to pull together all the tidbits of knowledge that I have gleaned from a myriad of sessions here at ISTE.  Well, played Pernille, well played.  So here goes a few of the ideas I have to foster a culture of sharing at our school this coming year.  

Call out the elephant in the room:

Admit that sharing is hard and scary, and even more scary in front of your peers that you respect.  Start there are then move on. 

Modeling

Model sharing and living your passion for those around you.  Starr Sackstein (@mssackstein) may have said it best 'None of us start as experts'  Couple this with quote attributed to Angela Maiers (@AngelaMaiers) 'The smartest person in the room, is the room' 

Shout out sessions in traditional and virtual meetings

Take the time to stand and recognize the genius and skill of those around you and encourage them to be recognized and share with the group in that moment the great things they are doing.

Create a brand and write your own story

I don't remember where I heard this one from or who I am stealing it from, but 'Tweetable Moments'.  I hope to make it a habit to find tweetable moments everyday.  I hope to inspire my peers to do the same share out 1 tweet a day with our school hashtag and use the already existing hardware in our commons area to showcase the awesomeness that is taking place in our school everyday.

Speed Geeking

This idea is one that a colleague of mine, Patty Wolfe (@wolfep).  Speed geeking, or organizing a regularly scheduled time for our staff to share 3 minutes of genius with other staff members in a rotating speed dating style session.  I see some potential for this to fit into our weekly breakfast club meetings we have on Fridays.

Walkthrough Wednesdays

This idea is inspired by Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent) while he was walking through the poster sessions at ISTE.  I am hoping to use the Periscope app to record videos of students every Wednesday as they are answering the question 'What is the greatest experience you have had this week in school'.  I then plan to upload these to YouTube and curate these experiences over the course of the year and give teachers some 'lift' as they hear the joy kids are experiencing in their classrooms.

 Start a Blogging Clan

This is an idea I had a little over a year ago.  One of the obstacles most people find when blogging, is not having a dedicated time to get it done.  Life happens, right?  This idea is to create a blogging clan that meets regularly to blog, and help others who are wanting to start blogging.  I know we have several people who want to blog but just need the input of activation energy!

 Mini Ignite Sessions

This is an idea that I am going to bring to our administration for the kickoff to our school year.  Have our fellow teachers get up and share 5 minutes of passion with the rest of the staff.  It is time to drop the self consciousness and self defeating talk.  We wouldn't tolerate it from our students, so why do we tolerate it from ourselves.  Lets share our talents and passion with the world.  You never know the impact you will have.

So, this was my list of ideas.  The challenge I give to you if have read this far:  What ideas do you have to build a culture of sharing?